Landslide- TOKYO – At least 19 people were missing on Saturday after heavy rains triggered a mudslide that washed away homes and covered roads with debris at a resort town about 100 km southwest of Tokyo, officials said. Japanese officials.
Police, firefighters and military personnel had started a search and rescue effort in and around the coastal town of Atami, and the Japanese Coast Guard were also called in to help after a torrent of mud and debris spilled over the hills and into the ocean.
An official in charge of the mudslides in Shizuoka Prefecture, which includes Atami, said “the safety of 19 people is unknown.” According to the Tokyo Electric Power Company, about 2,800 homes in Atami had lost their electricity on Saturday afternoon.
Atami, a town of around 35,000 known for its natural hot springs, warned residents to protect themselves from “dangerous” living conditions after 12.4-inch rain fell over a 48-hour period, This is 30% more than the average precipitation for the region for the entire month. July.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has called on the public to exercise extreme caution after dozens of towns and villages surrounding Tokyo set new rainfall records in the past two days.
Heavy seasonal rains have also disrupted rail service and triggered evacuation orders in several cities south of Tokyo. In Hiratsuka, a town of over 250,000 residents, authorities ordered most residents to leave on Saturday morning amid concerns about flash floods.
Yoshiharu Ishikawa, a mudslide expert at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, said that while the rainfall eased in the coming days, the accumulation of water in the soil would continue to pose challenges. risks in the region, which is crisscrossed by hills and valleys.
“Even if the rain eases, the risk of catastrophic Landslide is immediate,” he told Japanese television station NHK.
